Dear Editor,
Mike Hall is wrong to state that the EU is attempting to stop the Independence and Democracy Group having a say in the European Parliament (letters, May 30).
The measure to which Mr Hall refers is my proposal to raise the threshold needed to form a group in the European Parliament from 20 MEPs to 30 but the target of the reforms is certainly not UKIP, who have lost a quarter of their MEPs since the last elections.
The rule change, should it be adopted, will only come into effect after the next European elections, by which time UKIP will have surely faded further away.
The real target is the far right, which if it gains a mere 2.5% of the seats under the current rule (a far lower threshold than in most national parliaments), could form a Group in the next parliament and thereby qualify for significant staff and financial resources.
Does Mr Hall (and for that matter UKIP and the Lib Dems) really advocate giving taxpayers' money to neo-Nazis, Holocaust-deniers and fascists?
Yours,
Richard Corbett
Labour MEP for Yorkshire & Humber
Blenheim Terrace, Leeds
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